'The money we received from the Keeling Curve prize was deployed in two ways. First, a production trial with Otter Products for a new product and yesterday they let us know it went very well and expect it to make it through full commercialization. We also initiated our pilot scale trials on our solvent extraction from the left over gases. If successful this will decrease our emissions and provide massive adjust to our Life Cycle Analysis and ultimately make a meaningful impact for our customers who buy these solvents everyday who do not have a sustainable or responsible buying choice.'

'We are using the funds to bring together people from all over the world who are working on SRI to participate in two events which will help us to disseminate knowledge on SRI and its favorable climate impacts.

The first event will enable SRI scientists to present their work and discuss their findings with SRI researchers and with others from many countries interested in climate change and food security.

The second event, co-sponsored with the SRI-Mas Network in Malaysia, will bring together colleagues from various national and regional SRI Networks around the world to discuss inter- and intra-regional SRI cooperation and opportunities for multi-country studies that would include GHG research.

The Keeling Curve prize is helping SRI-Rice to convene this international group of scientists, communicators and field staff at an opportune time. The money is being used for airfare, accommodations, and event preparations (including literature for distribution). The prize money, by being used very sparingly and strategically, will enable researchers including GHG scientists and SRI network heads from the following countries to attend both events: India (3), Iraq (1), Philippines (2), Mali (1), Nepal (1), USA (1), and Vietnam (1). By being able to bring together this core of researchers and network heads with a number of other people who are interested in SRI and self-sponsored to attend these events.

The timing for the Keeling Prize could not have been better as we did not have the funding to pull together these two events as they both needed to happen in October in order to take advantage of International Rice Congress, which is a highly-regarded global conference that is convened only every four years.'

Lucy Hill Fisher, The System of Rice Intensification, Cornell University, September 2018

'We have procured an improved reactor that will be used in the production of bio fuel from water hyacinth. The improved reactor will give us the capability to produce 5000 liters of biofuel at once. This is indeed a significant improvement from the previous reactor that only produced 600 liters.

We have already procured an improved machine that can be used to remove the water hyacinth from the lake. Previously, we used human labor in removing the water hyacinth. By using this machine we are currently able to remove more than 500 kg of water hyacinth on a daily basis. This is indeed double as previously we only managed to remove less than 130 kg using the human labor which was also very expensive.

We have also used a small percentage of the Award money to improve our online visibility and market penetration in the target market. By the end of the month, customers will be able to access our Company through the website and we have also conducted door to door marketing to exhibit and explain to our target customers the benefits of using the biofuel as an alternative to charcoal and wood. We project to reach additional 500 households by the end of next month.

By winning the Award, we were able to attract the attention of the our Kenya National Innovation Agency. Our project have thus received significant attention from them and they have promised to help us in accessing relevant government authorities and government licenses.'